what have i asked the yijing?

i had been reading through several books thinking that i would find the text that i wanted to read at my brothers wedding, i settled at last on john berger and i'd bought "to the wedding", read it all the way through and hadn't found the text that fitted...

so i started going through all kinds of books almost randomly until i had a whole heap of them on my bed, at this point i asked the yijing:

give me guidance about finding the reading for my brothers wedding,

and it gave me (bottom up) : 7 7 7 9 8 8

34. Ta Chuang / The Power of the Great

Perseverence furthers.

with moving 4th line:

a) Perserverence brings good fortune.
Remorse disappears.
The hedge opens; there is no entanglement.
Power depends upon the axle of a big cart.
b) "The hedge opens; there is no entanglement." It can go upward.

giving:

11. T'ai / Peace

Peace. The small departs,
The great approaches.
Good fortune. Success.

well i took this to mean, keep at it and you will get there... so i continued for a spell but not long, before formulating another plan... using the lyrics to a song that i loved, and indeed once i'd decided that i was truly in peace, the hedge had opened and there were no entanglements... the answer was kind of a descroption of what i was going through rather than an instruction.

ok, so i think i'm going to ask the yijing a question again, it's been awhile...

i don't know where anything is... my copy of the book, my coins...

but just while i'm here, the question will probably be:

how can i move forward / live with K, given that both times i've spoken to him i've been insulted by him, given that the way he talks to me in these talks is like shouting and i pretty much crumble at this and become less able to stand up for myself / talk in a way he listens and finally given that whilst i often feel that love is the way, for me anyway, regardless of his way... it's way too easy to slip into responding to his bullshit with my own bullshit...

quite a question isn't it,

way too long, i need to get it more oncise but that's the nuts of it...

i live with K, not the K who was the subject of an earlier question...

x

looking back at this yijing blog i'm aware that i haven't asked the yijing anything in the past year... well, almost a year, and bizaarely, the last question i asked was about which of two potential housemates to select, i chose irish G in the end, but soon after another opening came and english G moved in as well, and now english G is my girlfriend...

i have questions about things and actually maybe i could formulate a question for the yijing now i consider it, i've always been aware that i don't want to just ask questions for the hell of it, only a genuine question can expect a good answer is what i think, but maybe the subject of children...?

anyway, in the past few months i explicated some thoughts i had about the yijing and it's relation to musical scales over on deoxy and i'm just posting here to link to that, and to say that i haven't disappeared, just haven't asked anything...

should i ask, this blog will keep being the place i set it all down...

x

i live in a house of 7, we are in a state of flux right now with some of us leaving and chosing others to move in, we had a meeting on friday to choose between 2 people - G or K, two clearly different energies, the vote was split evenly between them so we asked tehm round again on sunday, meeting on monday to finally decide, i found it really hard to choose between them...

as the meeting approached i found it harder and harder to reach a decision for myself so i asked the yijing:

please give me guidance about how to chose between G & K

with their clearly different energies i envisaged it being easy to interpret the judgement...

the coins (bottom up): 8 8 8 8 7 7

giving hexagram 20 (no moving lines):



20 Contemplation

Contemplation. The ablution has been made,
But not yet the offering.
Full of trust they look up to him.

the decision is a visible one, in the meeting we raise our hands to indicate who we're picking, and the rest of this is just... contemplate... go & think for yourself...

so i did...

x

i saw P, my ex-girlfriend, on tuesday, she is eager to see more of me, possibly even in a sexual way, she is seeing one or two other men at present, we kissed...

i am still unsure of how able i am to breeze in & out of P's life, as i told her, i'm still close to being in love with her...

& so i ask the yijing:

how much will i let P into my life in this time - now that she doesn't belong to me?

the coins say:

7
7
7
9
7
7
which gives me:
hexagram 1, moving line 3, giving hexagram 10 

1 The Creative

The Creative works sublime success,
furthering through perseverance.

1/3:

All day long the superior man is creatively active.
At nightfall his mind is still beset with cares.
Danger. No blame.

10 Treading

Treading. Treading upon the tail of the tiger.
It does not bite the man. Success.

in the commentary for 1/3 it says this:

A sphere of influence opens up for the great man. His fame begins to spread. The masses flock to him. His inner power is adequate to the increased outer activity.

somehow i'm the great man here, not that i'm taking that to my ego, just reading the signs, elsewhere the commentary mentions that danger, that maybe my inner power is not adequate to the increased demands... but despite the danger i behave rightly and am alright...

treading, the notion that i'm the one treading on P's tail, but she doesn't bite me, but also the idea that she's treading on my tail and i don't bite her...

i'm going to take it as it comes with P, not do too much to encourage her, but i guess this reading reminds me that i can deal with it, so if/when it comes... embrace it...

another look at it from jou tsang hwa referring to 1/3 says: catch the opportunity, it will soon disappear without a trace... a question there for me, but i'll wait & see, instead of catching this opportunity...

x

place: my room in finsbury park

i'd just spoken with S, the mother of my goddaughter, a singer i have done music with who's moved out of london to brighton, she was walking & singing to herself in the rain in brighton and a man stopped her and offered her a gig at a community / refugee awareness night in june... she initially thought someone else could do it then thought about me, and that we could do it, i was a bit sceptical about it, having done community gigs before, they can be great, but they can be really disorganised and rubbish... and so before i went to bed i asked this question:

what will be the nature of S's brighton gig?

and i got this answer:

7 7 8 8 8 6



being hexagram 19 with the 6th moving line giving hexagram 41.

19 Approach

Approach has supreme success.
Perseverance furthers.
When the eighth month comes,
there will be misfortune.

19/6:

Greathearted approach.
Good fortune. No blame.

41 Decrease

Decrease combined with sincerity
brings about supreme good fortune
without blame.
One may be persevering in this.
It furthers one to undertake something.
How is this to be carried out?
One may use two small bowls for the sacrifice.

approach brings success, also the moving line commentary speaks of a sage who has withdrawn from the world who returns to those he once worked with, either i'm the sage returning to work with S, or indeed S is the sage returning to work with music... either way, good fortune. and then decrease, it speaks to me of not having much money, which is probably true of me come june, almost certainly true of S, but likely also true of the community event, sincerity mixed in there as well...

all in all i'm going to do the gig if the circumstances are right... i like the idea of either me or S (or both) being sages returning to the world after a retreat...

x

place: my room in finsbury park

the night of my visit to JB, i had been reticent about the yijing but i was suddenly struck by the desire to do another reading, i'd recorded a version of the song i'd finished recently and given it to P & K, although K had still not heard it even though i'd emailed it her on her birthday, the day i recorded it, a week or so before, problems with her emails and i guess a reticence from her...

anyway i'd phoned K about it a few days previously and she'd suggested we meet for a cup of tea on the friday, which was also my first day back @ work after the easter holiday...

i asked the question on the thursday night:

how shall i approach meeting K tomorrow?

threw the coins, got:

9 8 6 7 7 9 9


hexagram 25, with moving lines 1, 3 and 6 giving hexagram 31

25 Innocence

Innocence. Supreme success.
Perseverance furthers.
If someone is not as he should be,
he has misfortune,
and it does not further him
to undertake anything.

25/3:

Undeserved misfortune.
The cow that was tethered by someone
Is the wanderer's gain, the citizen's loss.

31 Influence (wooing)

Influence. Success.
Perseverance furthers.
To take a maiden to wife brings good fortune.

So i approach the meeting with innocence, without intentions, (this in the context of my assuming K is with someone now, even as i want to be with her), but there will be undeserved misfortune, however the future seems to be one of wooing... well i took it that the undeserved misfortune would be that she has indeed met someone else... i don't like to think about the future part of it, i don't like fostering hopes where they might well be dashed... this is how i approached the meeting...

and then the next day came and it turned out that the undeserved misfortune was that another friend of hers was at work that day & by the time of our meeting she'd already left, with him i guess... so there was no meeting, undeserved misfortune indeed...

strangely validating of the yijing...

i'm still ignoring the wooing part... like i said, hopes... dashed...

place: JB's house in walthamstow

over the next few weeks i'd bought a copy of the yijing (the wilhelm-baynes translation) and another book by jou tsung hwa about divination, i'd asked JB (the friend/authority on yijing) to meet for a cup of tea and he'd invited me to his, just before i left mine i went through some old coins i had in my room and selected three 5G coins from the netherlands for my yijing divinations, for use until i get myself some chines coins...

i'd held off doing another reading until now, i had mixed feelings about it all..

the question:

how do i proceed with "harmonic experience" - the book & my practise ?

which is a beautiful book on music theory that i've begun but haven't yet done the singing practise necessary to moving forward, i haven't opened it for several months...

JB offered the use of his chinese coins but i wanted to use the coins that i'd selected, we talked for awhile before the reading, just as i was formulating my question, JB making another cup of tea, the sky darkened and there was thunder, it was a very stormy afternoon in the end, intense showers followed by nice sunshine followed by more showers...

i wrote down my question and threw the coins (deciding on tails=2, heads=3):

7 7 8 7 8 8



no moving lines, just hexagram 54

54 The marrying maiden

The Marrying Maiden.
Undertakings bring misfortune.
Nothing that would further.

we sat for a little while, slightly awkward, we spoke about it, he had a copy of nigel redmond's the language of the lines which we consulted as well, giving a slightly different interpretation of holding back / breaking through, where all the other commentaries were focussing on the holding back... JB eventually drew my attention to the commentary which says:

If we permit ourselves to drift along, we come together and are parted again as the day may determine. If on the other hand a man fixes his mind on an end that endures, he will succeed in avoiding the reefs that confront the closer relationships of people.

presenting the view that if i go forward now i need to be really sure of it and not just drift along...

the fact that there were no moving lines seems to mean the situation isn't dynamic, after all i haven't touched the book for months, and i'm going to follow the yijings advice and hold back from the book in this time,

i have wondered also about my relationship as a composer having my own experience of harmony, to this body of knowledge that represents the book, i feel a little threatened by it i suppose, the image of a young maiden marrying an older man and being inhibited by this... i'm the maiden, the book is the older man...? just a thought..

one further thought concerns the ruling line in this hexagram that i haven't read yet, as JB warned against it, it being a largely negative heaxagram with a positive ruling line, it didn't seem appropriate to him and he knows more about it than me, but i guess now i'm writing about it (several days later) i'm intrigued as to what the ruling line says...:

54/5:

The sovereign I gave his daughter in marriage.
The embroidered garments of the princess
Were not as gorgeous
As those of the servingmaid.
The moon that is nearly full
Brings good fortune.

should i choose to move forward then in the future - where maybe this reading will have no relevance anyway, i have two ways of looking at it, that i need to really do it properly, but also this, that i'm giving myself to this relationship with this work - this book, like a princess who marries below her station, but willingly, which actually is close to something i love in the book itself, about the relation of theory to music creation, and here i am reaching for the book that i've just said i'll leave for now, strange how these things come about...:

The Sufi mystics say, "The mind is the willing slave of the heart." The key word is willing. The intellect that wills to be in service of the intuition is powerful and mature - the kind of mind a musician needs in order not to be paralysed by knowledge...

i look forward to the time when i take on this book again, it is beautiful...

x